


Line of Blood

by AlyaG



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Character Death, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Next Generation, Not the ToG characters, This are their children okay, Well they’re mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:20:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21744463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyaG/pseuds/AlyaG
Summary: Aelin Galathynius Ashryver has died. As the last of what was known as the Terrasen Court, she leaves behind her and her friends’ children to manage on their own.They are the blood of great heroes and honorable people.But, do they share those qualities?
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character, Rhoe Ashryver Galathynius Whitethorn/you’ll know, Sam Ashryver Galathynius Whitethorn/Marion Lochan, and their children - Relationship, the usual pairings really
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue

She had had big dreams, once.  
She’d dreamed of a throne, a life in which she ruled over everything that surrounded her.  
She had killed for those dreams; taken lives that didn’t deserve taking.  
She had destroyed all that had been good in her for those dreams, none of the innocence she’d once despised left in her. She missed it, sometimes. When she remembered what she had once been and what she could’ve been.  
But it had all been for her dreams. It had all been worth it, she’d thought.  
Those dreams had turned to ash in her mouth.  
She should’ve seen it coming


	2. Pine-green eyes

Aelin Ashryver Galathynius Whitethorn, the Fire-Breathing Bitch-Queen of Terrasen, was dead.

She had had a long life, so much that it had almost seemed endless, but it was over.

However, her children were unable to feel sad. Not completely, anyway. Their mother had been very happy, and even though her absence would be felt, they knew she had no regrets.

It was in moments like these that Rhoe missed his aunt Elide.

She would have known what to say, like she always did, coming to his aid with a kind word and a soft look. Since she had been gone for a long time, he turned to the next best thing; her daughter Marion.

“You alright, Buzzard?”, she asked when he walked into her room at the palace right after the funeral. She was lying on her bed, hands beneath her head, looking at the ceiling. Rhoe laughed when he heard the nickname; his official name amongst the children of the Ashryver family, since he’d been the only one to inherit his father’s ability to turn into a hawk.

He laid down next to her, imitating her posture. He found nothing of relevance in the ceiling, but each to their own, he thought.

“I will be”, he answered, finally. “Gods, I am going to miss the bitch”.

Mare laughed. “You sound like my father”.

Rhoe shook his head, remembering Marion’s larger-than-life father, a wolf tamed into a puppy by the power of Elide Lochan. He had never called his mother anything but bitch, and she had always seemed to find that amusing.

“Well, I’m flattered”, he said. It was common knowledge that the only person Lorcan Lochan truly gived in to, besides his wife, was his daughter. And she adored him right back, up until the moment both him and his wife closed their eyes for the last time.

“You shouldn’t be”, Mare answered. “You’re just as stubborn as he was. I’m surprised you’re uncle Rowan’s child at all”.

Rhoe chuckled. “My mother and your father, picture _that_”.

He felt her shiver on the bed. “Now I’m scarred for life. That was disgusting”.

They looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting into laughter at the ridiculousness of the notion. Elide Lochan would have cut of his cock and then murdered him. Not to mention what Manon Blackbeak would have done.

“So, I guess Lily will be queen now”, Mare said.

Rhoe shrugged. “That was the plan, yes. Mother was smart enough to know that Lils is the only one who I would rule without destroying the world”.

“You wouldn’t have been a bad king”, she answered. Rhoe looked at her, one eyebrow up to his hairline.

“Sure, and Cal turns into a wolf at night”.

Mare laughed, and just then, they heard her brother’s voice calling her from down the hall.

“Gods, you summoned him”, she said, getting up. Rhoe followed.

“He knows when you’re talking about him, Mare. Creepy twins”.

Mare rolled her eyes Ashryver style. “Oh, shut up. Like you’re not creepy at all. You and your brothers are way too close”.

She put on a jacket and left the room, Rhoe right behind her, until they reached Cal. Unlike his sister, he’d inherited their father’s darker skin, even though they both shared his dark heir and their mother’s deep brown eyes. Cal was also taller than his father had been, and Mare was not much shorter, making her as tall as Rhoe and his brothers.

“What do you want?”, she said when she saw her brother, as nice as ever. Cal, used to it, ignored her annoyed tone and spoke:

“We need to go home”.

Mare raised an eyebrow. “Are you missing your lover’s sweet, welcoming arms?”

“Yes”, Cal deadpanned. “I would like to get back to him as soon as possible”.

Mare tilted her head to the side.

“Well, some of us are single and would like to stay here and comfort the royal family for a bit longer”.

Cal didn’t buy her bullshit.

“You mean you would like to comfort _Sammy_”, he said, a growl deep in his throat.

She laughed.

“Don’t play the jealous brother, Callie. Doesn’t suit you”.

Cal dropped the façade with a chuckle and looked at Rhoe. They had never been particularly close, but they still cared about each other. “You alright, kid?”, he asked.

Rhoe gave him a small smile. “Should be”. Eventually.

Cal nodded and let it go, turning to his sister instead. “Anyway, the Adarlan delegation is leaving. Thought you would want to say goodbye to them”.

“As usual, you were right, brother”, Mare said, jumping into a full sprint while yelling: “Assy! Lottie!”

Cal sighed.

Rhoe laughed.

“I don’t even know where that comes form”, Cal commented. “My parents were both reasonably calm. And even when they weren’t, they tended towards brooding rather than excitement”.

Rhoe chuckled. “You only say that because you can’t remember the day you were born. Lorcan nearly learnt how to fly. He pissed of everyone while your mother was giving birth, but when he finally held you... Gods, it was like you’d hanged the moon and stars”.

Cal shook his head, but he was smiling. “Weren’t you like four?”, he asked.

Rhoe shrugged. “Yes, but I remember my mother chastising my father for his lack of enthusiasm compared to Lorcan’s”, he chuckled. “He used to answer that it had gotten old after the second child”.

Cal barked out a laugh.

“And I’m sure she believed him”, he mocked, since Rowan’s adoration for his children had been clear to anyone able to see, hear or reason.

“Yeah, she got all pissy”, Rhoe laughed. “Gods, were they ridiculous or what”.

Cal smiled and began walking towards the front gate of the castle. “All parents are ridiculous, Whitethorn”.

Rhoe followed him, smiling as well. “Except for Manon Blackbeak”.

Cal’s smile widened. “Of course. And Nesryn Faliq”.

They became quiet when they heard Asterin Blackbeak’s scream:

“Get off me, you demented fae!”

“Ah, the sweet sound of friendship”, Cal cooed, and ran to help his best friend against his sister. Rhoe shook his head and watched the usually dignified queen of Adarlan fight off Mare, who was significantly taller. He approached them, smiling, and Asterin gestured for him to help.

“Ashryver, I call for the alliance between Adarlan and Terrasen! Help me get rid of the invaders!”, she screamed. Rhoe laughed at her. Seeing that he was no help, Asterin began calling her sister: “Lottie!”

Lothian Blackbeak pointedly ignored her, taking Rhoe’s hands instead, looking at him with those big, blue, Dorian-like eyes. Actually, Asterin had been the only one to inherit their mother’s golden eyes.

“Send a message if you ever need us, Rhoey”, Lottie said, making him roll his eyes.

“You know the only reason I let my mother call me that was because she could kick my ass”, he answered, smiling. “Don’t try your luck”.

She gave him a Blackbeak smile. “Are you threatening war, Galathynius?”

Rhoe ignored her, smiling to himself as he watched Cal try to extract his sister from her current position as Asterin’s new cape. He was so distracted he didn’t hear Lottie sigh because she knew she would lose the bet she and her sister had placed ages ago, concerning the exact date when he would tell Mare he was in love with her.

“Assy, don’t leave me here with all the boys!”, Mare was screaming. “I won’t make it!”

“You have Lily and Ria!”, Asterin answered, jumping like an untamed horse trying to free itself from an unwelcome rider. “I’m the queen of Adarlan! Get off me!”

Mare snorted.

“Lily hardly counts as female, and Ria likes her brothers too much to side with me!”, she answered.

“Hey!”, Rhoe intervened. “That’s my sister you’re talking about!”

Both of the struggling females ignored him. It ran in their blood, it seemed.

“You have Val, too!”, Asterin kept on going. “Gods, child, I will run you through if you don’t let me go!”

Mare chuckled and finally let go, smiling: “No need to threaten violence, Your Majesty”.

Glaring at her, Asterin wiped her clothes and rearranged them. Truly, she was an impressive female, Rhoe thought. Her mother’s white hair fell down her back in a complicated braid, and she held herself with a grace that spoke of her Blackbeak, Crochan and Havilliard bloodlines.

“Lottie”, she called, and her sister jumped to her side without a single sound.

“Yes, Assy?”

“I’m executing you for treason as soon as we get back home”, she looked pointedly at her. “For leaving me alone to deal with this lunatic”. Mare smiled at that.

Lottie shrugged.

“Sure”, she answered. “But then you have to deal with Mother”.

Asterin shivered.

“Let’s just go”.

Lottie smiled and hugged the Lochan twins before jumping on her wyvern. Asterin climbed on hers and glared at Mare, even though her eyes had softened considerably. Finally, she smiled.

“I’ll see you around, witchling”, she said. “Cal”.

“Bye, Assy!”, Mare exaggerated her screams, and Asterin let out a laugh at her ridiculousness. “Bye, Lottie!”

Lottie waved her goodbyes before taking off, and Asterin gave Mare a last glance before doing the same. Mare let out a dramatic sigh and fell in her brother’s arms.

“Well, whatever will I do without them?”, she asked, but she was smiling.

Cal sighed.

He sighed a lot when his sister was around.

Nonetheless, he held her until she pulled back.

“I need my Sammy to distract me from this pain”, she said, and she took Cal’s arm and dragged him to the inside of the palace again. Rhoe followed, amused as he always was by her antics. He was not, however, as amused by her preference for his brother. His mother would’ve called him a territorial fae bastard.

Shaking his head, he followed them to what his parents had named “the family room”. All of his siblings were there, along with his cousins, Aedion and Lysandra’s children.

“Sammy!”, Mare yelled, throwing herself at his brother.

“Mare!”, he yelled back, taking her in his arms. Sam could’ve been their father’s twin, sharing his silver hair and green eyes, as well as his tanned skin and broad smile. He had cut his hair after their father’s death, and he had kept it short ever since. He allowed himself to fall back into one of the many piles of pillows that populated the room, Mare on top of him, nuzzling his neck.

“Could you please do that when I’m _not_ in the room?”, his sister Lily asked, rolling her pine-green eyes and crossing her arms.

“Do you hear something?”, Mare mocked, tearing her face from Sam’s neck in order to look him in the eye. Sam laughed and shook his head no.

Lily sighed and looked at Cal.

“Could you please manage her? I don’t have the patience to deal with this today”.

Cal smiled.

“I don’t handle her”, he answered, causing both Mare and Rhoe to laugh.

Lily sighed again and left the room, murmuring something about ridiculous Lochans and their general stupidity.

Mare chose that exact moment to change her position and sit on Sam’s lap, her arms around his neck. He blinked a few times, his eyes shining with something that was definitely _not_ tears, before he buried his face in her neck and surrounded her waist with his arms, holding her to him. She laid her cheek on his hair and cradled him.

Rhoe was reminded then of his mother’s loss, and it was like he had felt it for the first time. His face probably fell, because his little sister Ria reached out to him then, quiet as ever, simply hugging him instead of speaking. He buried his nose in her hair and let himself rest on her, crying silently. He felt Cal’s hand on his back and thanked him mentally for the support. The youngest of his siblings, Ander, the only one who took entirely after their mother, was lying in another one of the pillow mountains, limbs entangled with their cousin Gavriel’s as he sobbed into his chest.

“It’s alright”, Gavvy was saying, gently stroking his hair, his tawny eyes looking at his brother, Wesley, who was sitting in the furthest corner of the room, playing a sad, slow melody in the late queen’s pianoforte.

Rhoe felt his sister shake in his arms and held her tighter.

“It’ll be fine, Ria”, he whispered against her hair, and he exchanged a look with Mare, who was saying something similar to Sam. She gave him a soft, sad smile and turned to his brother, gently rocking him.

A few minutes later, the sadness receded a little bit, and Ria stepped away from him. She smiled, sadly, and went back to her own pillow mountain, the book she’d been reading forgotten on the floor. She picked it up and held it to her chest, and only then did Rhoe remember it’d been one of their mother’s favorites.

Sam’s face reappeared from behind Mare’s neck, and Ander disentangled himself from Gavvy and stood up.

“Ma would’ve been proud of that display of affection”, he said, smiling. “She always said feelings had to be let out”.

“Never practiced it herself, though”, Sam added, and Ander let out a laugh, too loud to be completely genuine, but a laugh nonetheless.

Mare went to get up, but Sam held her on his lap, whispering a soft “stay”, that had her smiling and cupping his face before kissing him in the forehead. Rhoe ignored the tang of pain in his heart, as it was only a drop in the ocean of the hundreds of years he’d spent quietly yearning.

“Look away”, he heard Cal’s soft voice by his side. “It makes it easier”.

Rhoe let out a slightly bitter laugh. “Does it?”

Cal shrugged. “In my experience, yes”.

Rhoe looked at him then, wondering what part of Cal’s life he’d missed, what part brought such pain to his dark eyes.

“Should I go talk to Lily?”, Gavvy asked then, distracting him from his thoughts. Rhoe shook his head.

“I’ll go”.

And with that, he left the room, and the sight of Mare and Sam’s enamored entanglement. Which was a relief. He had spent too long denying his feelings for Mare to give up now.

He reached Lily’s door moments later and knocked. Since there was no answer, he tried again, this time saying:

“Evie, come on”.

Seconds later, the door opener, and his father’s eyes were staring at him from his sister’s face. They were full of Lily’s brand of quiet sadness, and a spark of anger.

“You have no right to use that nickname”, she spit, and Rhoe nodded. He expected that reaction. Only their father had had permission to call her that.

“I just wanted to see if you were alright”, he explained. She raised an eyebrow.

“No, I’m not”, she sighed. “I’m queen, Rhoe. I never thought I would be—I mean, I knew that I was Mama’s heir, but...”, she trailed off.

Rhoe understood.

“Mama always seemed endless. None of us pictured her dying”.

Lily shook her head and allowed him to hug her. She buried her face on his shoulder and surrounded him with her eyes.

“You’re not alone”, he whispered. “There’s five of us, plus Gavvy, Wes and Val”.

Lily sighed and relaxed a bit in his arms. He trailed a hand through her short, golden hair and smiled to himself. Truly, Lily had taken after their mother. Since early childhood, she hadn’t been one to express her feelings properly. Only their father, and their mother on occasion, had been able to get her to talk.

“Let’s go”, she said after a few minutes, stepping away from him. “Let’s check on the children”.

Rhoe laughed softly and followed her down the hallway, back to the family room. The second they stepped in, Ander jumped to his eldest sister’s arms, and she hugged him back. Being the youngest, and by many years, they had all spoiled him a bit.

“Hey, Buzz”, Mare called, and Rhoe turned to see her standing up—thank the Gods for that—, Sam on toe.

“Hey, Loch”, he answered, and she smiled. “Are you staying?”

She looked back at Sam and nodded. “Yes. I gather my brother will be able to survive without me for a few weeks”.

Sam’s face lit up at that, and her answering smile was a bit of an arrow to his heart.

“It’s late”, he said. “I’m going to bed, I think”.

Mare nodded and kissed him on the cheek. Sam hugged him quickly, and Rhoe stepped away from them to say goodbye to Cal. Surprisingly enough, he received a hug, and he allowed himself to sag a bit before pulling away.

“See you around, Lochan”, he said, and Cal smiled.

“See you, Whitethorn”.

On his way out, he kissed Ria’s forehead and ruffled Ander’s head, and then he was gone.

His bed welcomed him, and he sank down on it, glad to be done with this day. Glad to be able to sleep. And forget.

Until he was woken up, of course, by Ria’s panicked scream:

“Lily!”


End file.
